Nancy Pelosi: Madame Speaker

Pelosi was born in 1940 in Baltimore to an Italian family. Not only Italian, but heavily involved in politics, Pelosi's father was a Democratic congressman and the Mayor of Baltimore, and her brother was as well the Mayor of Baltimore. Her other brother was also involved in government, locally as part of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. This connection would drive Pelosi to move to San Francisco with her husband Ronald.

Early on, Pelosi was involved in politics, and after graduating from college, interned at a host of politician's offices including internships at both a Senator and House Majority Leader's office. In San Francisco, she befriended politicians like Congress Philip Burton. After becoming more active in the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Pelosi would take-over Burton's role as a member of Congress from San Francisco. Pelosi easily won the election, and has since 1987, the lowest she ever received in terms of popular vote being 80.9%. She has, thus, been able to contribute many funds to the Democratic party for other campaigns.

Pelosi quickly worked her way up in Congress, serving on the powerful Appropriations and Intelligence Committees. She then was elected House Minority Whip than Minority Leader, until Democrats won the House in 2006, where she was elected as the first female Speaker.

"This is a historic moment – for the Congress, and for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years. Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights. But women weren't just waiting; women were working," Pelosi said during her historic acceptance of the position.

During her tenure as speaker, Pelosi has certainly had many accomplishments, and shortcomings as well. Not only did she block many policies that she deemed unfavorable by acquiring huge support against George Bush's social security mandate. Pelosi also opposed an increase in troops during the Iraq War. More impressively Pelosi spearheaded support for Obama's Affordable Care Act and ensured it pushed through the House. 

Most interestingly, Pelosi showed pragmatism by refusing to put impeachment charges against George Bush. Indeed in a show of bipartisan intelligence, Pelosi told her colleagues to stop pursing impeachment over Bush's action during the war he started due to her understanding of the seriousness and lack of Constitutionality these claims had.

Once Democrats lost power in 2010, Pelosi continued her work as House Majority Leader. She has helped continue Democrats efforts in the House, notably in her ability to reach a compromise with Speaker John Boehner in 2015. While Pelosi certainly has had accomplishments, many have criticized her for being part of a political "dynasty" along with possible allegations of insider trading.

Regardless of her hypothetical shortcomings, it is clear that Pelosi is an integral part of not only our current government, but the movement for Women's rights and an expansion of many of the programs we've seen in Obama's era.